I’m Ron Thompson. I am on a mission to bring people and communities together with food and live performance. My passion is exploring this crossover culture of food and stage — the people who create it, love it, revel in it, and use it to make where we live a better place to be.

Not many people have lived in Dallas as long as octogenarians, Jack Evans and George Harris. Not many couples have been together as long as Jack and George — 55 years and counting. But no one in Dallas shares their unique notoriety.

Chef & Song is coming to Pink Magnolia — and we’re bringing Linda and Larry Petty with us!

Linda & Larry Petty

Terry Loftis was on his way out of town the evening of our first Chef & Song and wouldn’t be able to stay for dinner. He did, however, stop by long enough to do one thing — save the entire evening from complete disaster.

Before I started recording my conversation with Liz Mikel, we talked about her late friend, pianist Buddy Shanahan. His memory brought with it emotion. I asked if it upset her to talk about him. She looked at me flatly and responded with her eyes still flooded, “I’m talking about him, aren’t I?” And in that moment, I knew Liz Mikel doesn’t say anything she doesn’t mean.

I made the drive west to meet Sheran Goodspeed Keyton at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. We sat in the theater space where she stages her productions for the theater company she started eight years ago, DVA Productions. I brought coffee. (She prefers tea.)

T he story of Linda and Larry Petty is a love story started over 36 years ago, at Dallas Baptist College. They met, fell in love, and got married. Unfortunately, at the time, it wasn’t to each other. I had coffee with them last week. We talk about their first marriages and what finally brought them together, including an obsessive ex promising to have her in “life or death”, a Dukes of Hazzard-style standoff between a leather clad Linda and her stalker, armed guards at their wedding, and a secret proficiency in martial arts.

A few days before the attacks on the World Trade Center, three men kicked down the front door of Rob Todd’s Perry Heights townhouse, punched him to the ground, dragged him outside, and took turns kicking and stomping him in the head. They robbed and left him for dead.

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” — Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Like most really cool things in my career, the idea of Chef & Song started at the Sammons Center for the Arts — a unique space for a unique need in the community. Located in a century-old water pumping station, Sammons helps grow startup to mid-sized performing arts groups through affordable office, rehearsal, and performance space, as well as, management, education, technology, and collaboration services.